Oh Deer

We blame Casey & Colby for not being there to make dinner, I mean, it was supposed to be their turn. Then again it might have been my fault for not buckling down & cooking dinner myself. Or we could venture to say it was RJ and Gary's fault for staying out so late fishing that, by the time they got back, it was just too late to want to cook. Whoever's fault it was caused us to load up in Gary's Honda Civic (better gas mileage than RJ's truck) to drive the 20 miles to Pioche for a bite to eat during our camping trip in Eagle Valley.

We headed up the road chatting, hoping something would be open, playing with Lane. We'd gone about 3 miles when off to the left side the headlights illuminated a large doe beginning to cross the road. The deer paused, Gary pushed the pedal & veered right to get past, but then the animal went for it.

GARY: "Oh dear!"

SMASH!!! The deer had hunched down to jump when the bulk of it's body connected with our front left panel & headlight. It flew up and came back down with muddy hooves on the hood. Rumbling noise pounded our ears. End over end the doe tumbled as our car plowed forward. It felt like we were hitting it forever. When Gary finally got the car to a complete stop the deer rolled away from us dazed, struggling and clearly in a lot of pain.

TERESA: Oh no, we have to kill it so it doesn't suffer!
RJ: Just keep going. Gary keep going.
BRITTANY: We don't have anything to kill it with though!
TERESA: We can't just watch it slowly die!
RJ: Just drive past the deer.
GARY: But . . . my car.

Everyone stops at Gary's strangled words. Who cares about the stupid deer, he's thinking, that stupid deer just munched my car! Gary throws open his door & jumps out to survey the damage, RJ follows. The deer struggles up and over the bank and, thankfully, out of sight. Gurgling sounds coming from under the hood don't sound good. The thick, plastic cover that was the headlight is now in pieces, the bulb dark. The hood is dented and pushed to the right, muddy hoof prints scattered across the silver paint. The front left panel is crushed beyond recognition. It's now sitting in a crumpled heap on the wheel. The guys prop open the hood to find a broken container and the liquid the container held spewed all over the engine. I've joined the men by this point. Teresa remained in the car with Lane. After the guys did, ya know, guy stuff they mused it was probably the power steering fluid that was everywhere. Not so bad, right? Vehicles were driven for years before power steering came about. We'd live.

We decided to head back to camp to the sound of metal scraping against the wheel. Once there we laughed & joked about the ordeal, if for nothing but to lighten the mood.

TERESA: Yeah your husband's line of emotion is always straight. I had no idea there was even a deer coming until we were on top of it. If it was me behind that wheel I would've been yelling, "DEER! DEER! DEER!"
BRITTANY: It is difficult to tell when he's joking and when he's serious because he sounds the same.
RJ: Ha ha, Gary said 'oh dear.' Get it? That's funny. You couldn't come up with anything more creative?
GARY: Well, I'm just not a swearing man I guess.

Why did we even go anyway? Whose idea was it? We came up with silly, but plausible, reasons as to who was to blame. Casey & Colby were finally deemed responsible. They weren't there to defend themselves. It was easy to blame them. That is until Teresa fessed up.

TERESA: Guys, when the whole thing happened I didn't have Lane buckled in. I don't always buckle him in because he hates it & throws a fit. So while the rest of you were looking at the car I was silently freaking out. I mean accidents are called accidents for a reason because we don't mean for them to happen. What if Lane had gotten hurt? I'm such a bad mom! I'm buckling him in from now on.
RJ: Oh so it's your fault!
BRITTANY: Yeah, Heavenly Father was trying to teach you a lesson.
GARY: He's scaring you into buckling Lane in.
TERESA: Well it worked!

So the accident is officially Teresa's fault. Something was amiss in her life & Heavenly Father was trying to reach her.

Too bad He decided to teach her a lesson in Gary's car.